Peta Mathias

Peta Christine Mathias is a New Zealand food writer and television show presenter and owns a television production company that produces food and travel shows. She is also known for leading gastronomic tours in the south of France, Morocco, Spain and India. Mathias then moved to London and to Paris and started working in restaurants, first as a dishwasher and later as a chef; eventually she bought a restaurant there, Rose Blues, and ran it for four years.

In 1990, Mathias returned to New Zealand and began to work in food writing and broadcasting. In 2006 she set up a company organising and leading culinary tours, and in 2008 she set up a production company, Red Head Media, to make food and travel television shows based on her travels. Salut! (1998); Random House New Zealand; Burnt Barley (2000), Vintage New Zealand; Insatiable (2000); Random House New Zealand; Sirocco (2002), Vintage New Zealand; Noodle Pillows (2003), Exisle Publishing; A Cook's Tour Of New Zealand (2005), Penguin Books New Zealand; French Toast (published 1998 as Salut!; updated 2016, 2010), Penguin Books New Zealand; Can We Help It If We're Fabulous? (2008), Penguin Books New Zealand; A Matter of Taste with Fulvio Bonavia (2008), Hachette Australia; Just In Time To Be Too Late (2009), Penguin Books New Zealand; Culinary Adventures in Marrakech (2010), Penguin Books New Zealand; Beat Till Stiff (2011), Penguin Books New Zealand; Hot Pink Spice Saga with Julie Le Clerc (2014), Penguin Books New Zealand; Shed Couture (2021), Penguin Books New Zealand;

Awards and recognition In 1997, Mathias won Best Segment in a Food Program at the World Food Media Awards for her segment on TVNZ's series Taste NZ. In 2003, she won the Supreme Award at the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers Culinary Quill Awards.

Her book Burnt Barley won Best Literary Food Writing (in English) category at the World Cookbook Fair. The book was released with an accompanying four-track CD of the same name (released on the Vintage label), on which Mathias sings Irish country songs.

In 2014, Hot Pink Spice Saga, which Mathias co-wrote with Julie Le Clerc, was shortlisted in the Best in the World for Indian Cookery category at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.